January 2012
Quick Hits: Fielder, Motte, and A New Series?
Quick hits is a mini series where subjects that may not be worthy of their own post, but still important none the less. So in this “series”, if you want to call it that, I take all these subjects and compile it into one post. So here we go.
The Tigers have signed Prince Fielder to a 9 year $214 million dollar deal.
The Tigers were certainly in need of another big bat after losing Victor Martinez, but boy this is a BIG contract. To put it in perspective: Albert Pujols is only getting 2 million more AAV then Fielder.
This is the same place where his dad Cecil spent the majority of his great career, but as of now those two aren’t each others biggest fans, but that’s another story for another time.
I wonder how Prince will do in Comerica Park. It’s such a huge stadium and a big pitchers park it’ll be interesting to see how his power numbers are.
In my opinion this is a bit too big of a commitment to a fairly inconsistent player. Yes, he had a monster 2011 season, but it seems like he has a good year and then a bad and then a good again and so on. He’s a fairly big player. Fat, tubby, broad, busky, big-boned, stocky; however you want to put it he’s not the smallest player which hasn’t been a problem. At least not yet.
With this signing I think the Tigers will steam roll over the AL Central, but I still doubt they go too far in the postseason.
The Cardinals have reached a 1 year $1.95 million dollar contract with “closer” Jason Motte.
This is a great deal as Motte really solidified him self as an elite reliever in October and was a crucial part of the magical run made by the Cards.
By reaching this deal they avoid arbitration. No one really won out as 1.95 million is exactly in the middle of Motte’s arbitration request and the Cardinals.
This is basically a cushion deal so they can see how he fares as a closer throughout a season. If he does well they’ll give him a multi-year deal. Multi year deals on a closer is a bit risky.
All in all: A solid deal for both parties.
Fan Friday?
This would be a series where the readers (you guys) send me messages throughout the week regarding the Cardinals and baseball in general and I’ll answer them all every Friday. If you would like to ask a question contact me by any means possible (email,comments,twitter,etc.) just be sure to leave your blog and/or real name at the end of the question. If I get enough questions quickly the first edition of Fan Friday could be this Friday. So get those questions in!
Thanks for reading.
-Zack
The Battle For Backup Catcher
There aren’t too many battles upcoming this spring, but the battle for the backup catching job is probably the most compelling. Last post I took a look at the second base battle which had three candidates. This battle will ony feature two competitors: Bryan Anderson and Tony Cruz.
So let’s take an in-depth look at these two players.
Bryan Anderson: Age: 25. Height: 6’1″. Weight: 200 lbs. Drafted in the 4th round by the Cardinals in the 2005 amateur draft.
In his little major league experience, the year where he got the most playing time in the big’s was 2010,so let’s look at his 201o MLB stats.
In 15 games he hit .281 with 4 RBIs. (as I said not much playing time which equals not a lot of stats, sorry.)
He got most of his playing time in AAA Memphis, so now we’ll look at his 2011 AAA stats.
Hitting: .281 BA. 8 HR. 37 RBI
Fielding: .988 Fld.%. 24 caught stealing. 8 errors.
Tony Cruz: Age: 25. Height: 5’11″. Weight: 205 lbs. Drafted by the Cardinals in the 26th round of the 2007 amateur draft.
2011 MLB Hitting Stats: In 38 games, Cruz hit .262 with 6 RBIs
2011 MLB Fielding Stats: 2 caught stealing. 0 errors.
2011 AAA Stats:In 45 games he hit .262 with 4 home runs and caught 9 stealing while making just 3 errors.
Phew! OK enough with the stats! Looking at the stats you can see both players are very similar. Cruz has had more MLB experience which could give him an advantage, but it’s been reported that Matheny actually favors Anderson. Unlike the second base battle I don’t think there’s a favorite in this one.
Whoever wins the right to back up Yadier Molina will truly have to WIN the job in Spring Training.
Thanks for reading.
-Zack
The Battle For Second Base
It seems like every season for the Cardinals brings upon a new second basemen and come Opening Day 2012 there could be another new one, or not.
The race for the starting job is a three-horse race as confirmed over the weekend at the Winter Warmup. This year Skip Schumaker, Daniel Descalso, and Tyler Greene will be battling for the job.
It seems as if Descalso is definitely the favorite at this point. Mozeilak has said on record his trust in giving him the starting job, but he’ll still have to earn it. There are a few reasons why I agree with Mo, so let us take a closer look at the three candidates:
Skip Schumaker: Stat-wise, he certainly is the best for the job. Skip hit .283 with 38 RBIs in the 2011 campaign,but I think his duties would be best fitted for a utility man role. Schumaker displays an outstanding ability to play multiple positions and pinch hit well. I don’t think being a utility guy is necessarily a downgrade, I look at it as more of a 10th position, and an important position at that. I think Skip would be an important asset coming off the bench and could easily step in and fill the spot of an injured player.
Tyler Greene: Greene is an offensive force in AAA where he hit a whopping .323 with 43 RBIs in 2011, but the key word there is AAA. So far he’s been a bust at the MLB level proving incapable of handling the stress of playing in the bigs. Greene hit only .212 in his limited playing time in 2011 with the MLB club. So why is he even considered for the job you ask? Well many people credit his poor MLB performance to a bad relationship with Tony La Russa. With a new manager in place maybe Greene will step up in to the player he was thought to be when drafted by the Cardinals in 2005. He’ll certainly get a shot at it though, but it may be his last chance to finally prove himself.
Daniel Descalso: Descalso has always been great with the glove, but his hitting has lacked. DD hit .264 in 2011, but his offense showed some bright spots and in my opinion, given the opportunity, he could be a good everyday player. Descalso’s range at second has also been questioned, but I really don’t see that being a too big of a problem. With Schumaker (as I said) being better fit for a utility role I think you have to put Descalso as the favorite to win the job.
This will be an interesting battle and it will be fun to see how it all plays out.
I apologize for the lack of posts, but January is a bit of a boring month for baseball and I promise you, come February, there will be TONS of content. If you have any suggestions/requests for topics please let me know in the comments below or elsewhere.
Thanks for reading.
-Zack
